A rollercoaster ride is the only way Carol Taylor can describe her life over the past four years.

Just after New Year 1999, at the age of 37, Carol, of Tynemouth, was diagnosed with breast cancer, while working full-time, studying for an MA at Durham University and raising a young family.

Her experience of the disease prompted her to set up a website, www.workingaftercancer.co.uk, which has had more than 11,000 hits since it was launched in March.

The site aims to encourage both employees and employers to examine some of the issues which can arise when a person diagnosed with cancer returns to work.

"You can get all the medical support you need," Carol explains, "but what's more difficult is all the things like insurance.

"There were so many things I didn't know then that I know now and I want to share them with others."

Carol, who now works for Business Link Tyne and Wear, found a small pea-sized lump in her right breast just before Christmas 1998, but decided to wait until after the festivities to see the doctor.

"My first reaction was one of `Oh, it will be nothing' so I went through Christmas without being too concerned," says the mum-of-two. "So I was surprised when I casually mentioned it to the doctor when I went for a routine smear test and he told me he wanted to get it checked out.

"This was the start of the most incredible rollercoaster ride of my life. Each day consisted of emotional swings from thoughts like `Carry on, get on with it' to `What if it is serious?' to `I can cope, I have to - what about my husband, and the boys?"

Carol continued with her daily life. She started an MA in entrepreneurship but said nothing to her fellow students or lecturers.

She got a letter saying the smear test was clear, and that she just had to wait for the appointment at the hospital to see about the lump in her breast.

The examination involved a needle being inserted into the lump. "It was the most excruciating direct pain I had ever felt and I could feel tears running down my face," Carol recalls.

"After a wait of 45 minutes, my husband Keith and I were called into the consultation room. The doctor told me some of the cells were not normal and they would like to remove the lump to check it out."

Carol had the lump removed and prepared herself for the worst-case scenario.

Eventually the day came to get the results. The lump was cancerous.

"I remember feeling like I wanted to laugh and couldn't understand everything that was being said. Then I saw Keith's face. He looked like he had seen a ghost," says Carol.

Despite hearing the word cancer, Carol never entertained the thought of dying. "I was more concerned with how much pain I would have to endure before I was cured as I had watched my father deteriorate with cancer very slowly."

Carol underwent a second operation to check the cancer hadn't spread to her lymph nodes, which it hadn't. But she would need a course of radiotherapy.

"I returned to work and university, although I was struggling to keep up. I had decided to stay at work but one day I suddenly realised the magnitude of what I was trying to cope with and broke down."

Carol's two sons, Dean, then 11, and Rhys, then seven, were fantastic, she recalls. "But what do you say when your child asks you if you are going to die or whether it hurt? I decided to answer them truthfully and once I had done so, they continued watching TV. Boys will be boys!"

Carol says the sense of everyday life maintained by the boys helped her bounce back.

However, one of the biggest difficulties Carol had to face was other the reaction of others to her illness, which is another issue tackled on her website.

"I found the way they treated me difficult to come to terms with. They wanted me to carry on as if nothing had happened. All I wanted was to be able to talk about the cancer if I felt like it," says Carol.

"If only someone had said to me, `Do you want to talk about it or don't you want to talk about it?' That would have made all the difference.'"

Carol became quite desperate to talk to other people who had experienced what she was going through and started to look on the internet. She found one bulletin board where women who were having treatment for cancer logged on and wrote about how they felt.

However, back at work, things were different for Carol.

"Some colleagues ignored me, obviously feeling uncomfortable. Others offered insincere words. But then there were my lifesavers, who just treated me the same as before.

"I also got annoyed when people asked how I was and said I must be feeling good now that I had the all-clear.

"This lack of understanding irritated me. You don't get the all-clear, you just have to hope it won't come back."

But that wasn't the end of Carol's ordeal. She started getting a pain in her lower abdomen and worried as one of the side effects of the pills was a thickening of the womb.

She had an internal ultrasound scan, which showed up two ovarian cysts, one on each ovary, and that one had some sort of growth on it. The doctor recommended it was removed.

"I could hardly believe what was being said," says Carol. "I had 10 days to wait until the operation and another 10 to wait for the results. My mind kept darting back to how I had felt 10 months before. I prepared myself for the worse.

"I wrote a letter to Keith and the boys and told my sister where it was in case anything went wrong. I still have the letter."

The results came back and were fine. Carol returned to work and started to rebuild her life. She still woke up every morning with the thought that she had had cancer and that was the same thought she took to bed with her each night.

"One thing with cancer is that you do get a bit paranoid about every ache and pain, so when I had a lump in my throat, I decided to get it checked out. I had to have my adenoids removed, and once again thought, `Here I am back on the rollercoaster again'."

In January 2001 Carol had a full hysterectomy after experiencing pains in her abdomen again.

Now, finally, the rollercoaster Carol was on has reached its destination. And despite the ups and downs, Carol says the ride has given her strength.

"I used to be such a worrier," she smiles. "But this has put things in perspective. I now feel I can do anything, face any challenge, and I have a greater lust for life than ever before."